A Matter of Perspective 06-30-24

People's reactions to different topics can vary greatly. The speaker mentions how people have different reactions to names like Joe Biden and Donald Trump, as well as topics like electric vehicles and COVID. He also notes that nobody seems to be excited about what God is doing in America. The speaker then goes on to talk about how negativity has always been present throughout history, citing an example from 2,400 years ago. They mention how Moses was born during a difficult time of slavery and prejudice, but his parents still had hope because God had blessed them materially and numerically. The Israelites multiplied greatly during their time in Egypt. How's everybody doing this morning? Everybody's in a good mood? This is sort of like a homecoming to me. Most of you all know me, but I see a lot of new faces, which I am very excited about, because that says something about this church is growing. And that is good news. Now, did any of you watch the debate this week? I didn't, I'll be honest with you, I wasn't interested. Because I've noticed people's reactions. If you say Joe Biden, some people react this way and some people react that way, right? If you say Donald Trump, some people react this way and some people react that way. If you say electric vehicles, is there a man here that's in the market for an electric pickup truck? Anybody want one of those? If you hear the word COVID, you know that the reaction you get today is vastly different than it was four years ago, wasn't it? If you bring up the direction America is going, you get a strong reaction, do you not? You know the one thing I've not heard a single person say? Not one person. Nobody has said to me, I'm excited about what God is doing in America today. I've not heard that. Now, this may seem like I'm headed out in a negative ramp. No, I am not. This is gonna be a very positive message. But that negativity that floats around has been with us forever. 2,400 years ago, Socrates wrote, our youth love luxury. They have bad manners and despise authority. They show disrespect for their elders and love to chatter instead of exercise. Young people are now tyrants. That's 2,400 years ago. You know, every generation since then has echoed that same sentiment. And I'll tell you what, before that it was echoed as well. There's always been the echo of every generation. And every generation has said the same thing. It's not a good time to bring children into the world. It's not a good time to have babies because of the state the world is in. There is a Greek word for that. Baloney. If there was ever a bad time to bring children into the world, it was in the day of Moses. Now, Moses was born at a bad time. And Moses' parents knew it was a bad time, but they knew it was a good time to have babies. What did they say? In Hebrews 11, 23, now that is, Hebrews 11 is the roll call of the saints. That's the great heroes of the past. Faithful people. By faith, Moses' parents hid him for three months after he was born because they saw he was no ordinary child and they were not afraid of the king's edict. Now, the people of Israel were being crushed under the lash of slavery by the Egyptians. Why? Two reasons. The first of all, profit. Profit. Exodus 1, 11. So they put slave masters over them to oppress them and force labor and they built Python and Ramses as store cities for Pharaoh. The Hebrew children were forced to build these cities and many other things. Why? Because it afforded the Egyptian nation a very high standard of living. They had it good. They were well off. They did not have to work hard. The work was done for them. Their economy was built on the backbone of slavery. And then Moses came with the plagues and they let the people go. Remember they sent that army after the people and they were drowned in the Red Sea? Everybody remember that? Do you remember why they sent that army after the Hebrew children? After they had let them go? The Bible tells you very plainly why they did that. Exodus 14, 5. When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about them and said, what have we done? We have let the Israelites go and have lost their services. Can I translate that? Our standard of living just went down. We're not gonna have it as good as we did. There's a lot of these jobs that they were doing that we have to do now if they're gonna get done and we don't wanna do it. We let our whole standard of living go right down the toilet. That's what they were saying. So they sent the army after them. Now there was another reason it was a bad time to be born. Not only was this oppression and slavery, but it was a bad time for Moses to be born because of prejudice. All the Egyptians were prejudiced against the Jews? No. They didn't have anything against the Jewish people. What were their prejudice against? It may interest you. The Egyptians said to the Hebrew children, the Jews, you come down here and live. We'll give you a great place to live, Goshen. One of the best parts of the land of Egypt. You know why they chose Goshen? Because it wasn't in their neighborhood. You can come down here, you can live down here, but you're not gonna move in beside us. You're not gonna live in our neighborhoods. We're gonna put you out there in your own community and you stay away from us. Now why would they do that? What were they so prejudiced about? Remember when Joseph brought his family down? You know, he was serving as prime minister. And they were to appear before Pharaoh, all 70 of them. You remember what he told them to tell the Pharaoh in Genesis 46, 34? Joseph said, you should answer, your servants have tended livestock for my boyhood on, just as our fathers did. Then you will be allowed to settle in the region of Goshen for all shepherds are detestable to the Egyptians. All shepherds are detestable to the Egyptians. Have you ever thought about the skill set it took to be a shepherd? They had to stay up late at night. They had to be able to count sheep while staying up late at night and still stay awake. They had to be brave enough to fight off wild animals. They had to be strong enough to carry an animal that might be hurt or injured by the animal healed. And they had to be nimble enough to get up and down those sheer cliffs at times because sheep would just wander off and get stuck in a place they can't get back. So you have to go get them. Those are the five needed things to be a shepherd. And because they were shepherds and detestable to the Egyptians, they were given the land of Goshen and they flourished there. Their flocks multiplied. I mean, they multiplied. Goshen was the delta. It was the grassland. It was an ideal place to raise sheep. Well, it turned out also as an ideal place to have babies because they began to grow numerically. As a matter of fact, they grew so much that Pharaoh gave an order, he gave an edict, he gave a law that every newborn Hebrew male was to be thrown into the Nile River and drowned and later eaten by crocodiles. That was the order. Now, that was the situation when Hebrews 11, 23 says, by faith Moses' parents hid him for three months after he was born because they saw he was no ordinary child and they were not afraid of the king's edict. Now, you might be thinking, Preacher, you just read that a moment ago. Did you forget yourself? No, I didn't. Because we probably don't realize how important those words are. The first Christian martyr for the faith, the first man to die for his faith was Stephen. He was stoned to death for preaching Jesus. Go back and read the sermon that he preached. Those words were on his lips. They're in Acts 7, 20. Stephen said, at that time, Moses was born and he was no ordinary child. For three months, he was cared for in his father's house. And a few minutes later, they were stoning him to death. Now, here's the question. With all the prejudice, with all the slavery and the profit-taking, why didn't Moses' parents feel like it was a good time to have children? Well, God had given them reason for hope. Even though they were in slavery, they had reason for hope. God blessed them materially. God blessed them materially. Remember the story. Joseph was betrayed by his brother, sold into slavery. He went down to Egypt. He was put in Potiphar's house. He was falsely accused by Potiphar's wife. He ended up in the dungeon. He interpreted dreams for the royal cupbower and baker. He ended up before Pharaoh. He told the Pharaoh's dream about seven years of plenty and seven years of famine. And he became the second most powerful man on the face of the earth. From slavery to the second most powerful man, prime minister of Egypt, on the face of the earth. God did all of that. Now, they came down there, seventy of them. Remember the famine? His family came down? Seventy of them. And they came to settle into that land. That's about 1876 B.C. The ocean, the best part of the land. And so, they were blessed materially because during that famine, Egypt had food. God blessed them numerically as well. In Exodus 1-7, the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous so that the land was filled with them. People say, the Bible is hard to believe. Somebody raising from the dead. Five little loaves of bread and two fish feeding five, ten thousand people. That's hard to believe. It's hard to believe the Red Sea would part. It's hard to believe that water would come from a rock. All that stuff, it's hard to believe. But everything that is hard to believe in the Bible because it is so out there, and it's all true. Nobody ever says, you know, the Bible really understates some things too. The Bible makes statements that we don't even begin to understand. It says they multiplied greatly. That's all it says. Can I explain that to you? America was established in 1776, correct? If you count every American that was alive in 1776 when we became a nation, and look at America today, for every American that was alive then, we have 131 Americans today. So our population has increased 131 times. Now, you've got to remember something. That's after we have added 37 more states. But we're 131 times larger than we were then. When the Israelites came out of Egypt, they had 600,000 men, the Bible says. Counting women and children, that makes about 2 million. They started with 70. That meant that when they came out, for every Israelite that went in, now this is after 400 years, for every Israelite that went in, it wasn't 131 times more, it's 28,500 times more. Let that sink in. Everyone that went in, 28,500 came out. We've got 131 more. You don't think that's miraculous? During a time of slavery? During a time when they were killing children? That print is absolutely amazing. And Israel couldn't see that. They were blind to what God was doing and it perverted their faith. Now, Abraham was the friend of God. The Bible says that. Joseph was probably the most Christ-like man in the Old Testament. They gave a good foundation, but over the next 400 years during that time, Israel lost their way big time. And here's the reason why. They looked at their circumstances, the slavery they were living under, and that's all they saw. It's sort of like the person that watches news all day long. If you watch the news every day, you're going to live a depressed life. You're going to live an unhappy life because everything is breaking news and none of it's good. They'll never tell you about anything that's happening good on the TV. And it is depressing. If you look at your circumstances, you'll always be depressed. But instead of looking at circumstances, we're supposed to be looking at what God is doing. You would have thought that they would have seen that. For instance, Moses comes down. There's ten plagues. The last plague, the firstborn of every Egyptian household died. The Israelites were spared. You would have thought that that would open their eyes. They were let go. You would think that would open their eyes. The Lord parted the Red Sea. They walked across on dry ground. The water came back and swallowed up the Egyptian army. You would have thought that would open their eyes. They didn't know where to go, so there was a pillow of cloud by day and a pillow of fire by night. You would have thought that would have opened their eyes. They didn't have food, so there was quail and manna that God gave. You would have thought that would have opened their eyes. They didn't have water. Water came from a rock. You would have thought that would have opened their eyes. But all they saw were their circumstances. And so Moses goes up on Mount Sinai to receive the commandments. And they immediately began to build a golden camp and worship it. In Exodus 32, verse 6, they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry. And God called them a stiff-necked and rebellious people. Now, they had good men, Joshua and Caleb, but they were few and far between. And those men challenged them. They said, throw away the gods of your forefathers' worship. This is in Joshua 24, 14 in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And in Ezekiel, we get the answer in Ezekiel 28, but they rebelled against me and would not listen to me. They did not get rid of the vile images they had set their eyes on, nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt. They just kept looking at their circumstances. They did not see what God was doing. Do you know how unreasonable that was? Now, I know there was a Pharaoh that came to power that knew not Joseph. I know they were put into slavery. But you would still have thought somewhere along the way they would have seen the hand of God. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. There were not enough weapons in hell's arsenal to stop or even slow down what God was doing. The Hebrew midwives were ordered by Pharaoh, when a Hebrew woman has a male child, call the soldiers so we can drown the child and let the crocodiles eat it. What did they do? Somebody comes rump. Mary's going to have a baby. My biscuits are almost done. I'll be there as soon as I can get them out of the oven and do the dishes. I'll be there. And so they sauntered down there. You know, take their time. Oh, Mary's already had a baby. Where is Adam? So Pharaoh called them to account. Why aren't you reporting these Hebrew males being born? And they said, well, these Hebrew women are so vigorous. They had their babies so quickly and they're gone. These midwives were doing the exact opposite of what abortion clinics are doing today. And God blessed them for it. The exact opposite. Now, you might remember what Abraham had said. He said, you're going to endure 400 years of slavery, but after that you're going to come out of Egypt with great riches. I want you to listen to this part of the sermon very carefully. You're going to come out of Egypt with great riches. In Genesis 15, 12 through 14, As the sun was setting, Abraham fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. Then the Lord said to him, Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated 400 years. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterwards they will come out with great possessions. What were the great possessions they came out with? Now, some of you students of the Bible, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking about Exodus 12, 35 through 36. I'll read it to you. The Israelites did as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing. The Lord had made the Egyptians favorable, disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for, so they plundered the Egyptians. And most people will tell you that was the great possessions they came out with. Clothing and linen and silver and gold. God made them rich coming out. Maybe. That may have been part of it, but I don't think that was it, because those are material possessions. It's here today, and it's gone tomorrow. If our economy takes a drastic downturn, see what your stocks do. See what happens to your savings. See what happens to prices. I'm going to tell you, Israel came out of Egypt with four things that were far, far, far more important than the silver and the gold and the clothing. Far, far more important. First of all, they came out as a people that were now educated, cultured, knew the arts, the crafts, the skills, and the trades. Hold it. When did that happen? 400 years while they were in Egypt. They built two whole cities. I'm not talking about two buildings. They built two whole cities. Have you ever thought of how the Egyptians built things? It was unbelievable. Today, our scientists still marvel at how they built the pyramids. We don't know how they did it. And you know one of the hardest things to figure out how they did the pyramids? How, that long ago, they got them so perfectly, perfectly square. I've built two woodsheds in the last few years. Neither one of them's square. And I measured and I measured. It ain't easy. They learned how to do that. Anything the Egyptians built were beautiful. They were ornate. They were encrusted with jewels. I mean, done to the nines. They learned how to do, they were taught all the trades, all the skills. Yeah, they made bricks, but they did everything else, too. They had to be educated to do that stuff. Now, why is that important? Skip a few chapters and go look at the tabernacle. Most people say, well, the tabernacle was the tent they worshiped in. Go look at the chapters. Chapter, chapter, chapter telling you how to build the tabernacle. Friend, it was intricate. It was ornate. It was beautifully done. It was not an easy task. They did not have those skills when they went into Egypt. They knew how to stay up late at night. They knew how to stay awake. They knew how to guard. They knew how to carry a sheep. And they knew how to get up and down cliffs. That was their knowledge. And they came out with all the stuff that we need to build the tabernacle and then the temple. They did not have it when they went in. Secondly, they came out with enough people to not only take the land of Canaan, but hold it. 28,500 came out for every one that went in. They needed that population in order to take the land God had given them. Third thing they had, they came out with a backbone. 400 years of oppression gave them a hatred of slavery and they despised any oppression. God put a backbone in His people. What other people on the face of the earth could have survived the holocaust of World War II? People say, well, the Germans did that. Friend, in every nation the Germans captured, the people there did it as well. It just wasn't Germans that did that. They were persecuted all over. And yet they survived because God gave them a backbone. And the fourth thing was an identity. When they went down there, they were nomadic shepherds. You feed your sheep here, clear the land, eat up the grass, drink the water. You go here, you start over. You go here, you start over. They were just disjointed bands of people. They came out after 400 years of unified suffering with an identity as a nation. And then layer by layer by layer, they began to realize, God was at work in Joseph. He was at work in Moses and those plagues. He was at work when we crossed the Red Sea. He was at work with that pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire. He was at work with the quail and manna. And they looked back and they saw how God had pieced together everything, how God was in the details. And they began to realize, we are the people of God. The tragedy is they still remain blind to the fact that they were the people from which the Messiah was come and they did not recognize Him when He came. That's the sad part. Those are the things they came out of Egypt with that they did not have when they went into Egypt. So why is all of this important? And what does it have to do to us today? And if you don't mind, I want to talk to the men right now. Gentlemen, I want to ask you to pay special attention. Every man is called to be the spiritual leader of his home. That is our God-given responsibility to be the spiritual leader of our household. Now, there's not a person here that can't look back and say, God was at work then and God was at work then and God was at work then. When you look back and say, you know, I see now that God was at work guiding this, that's a little bit of spiritual leadership. But that's not the spiritual leadership we're talking about today. I'm talking about the spiritual leadership that sees God at work now. The spiritual leadership that sees what God is doing in America now. The spiritual leadership that sees what God is doing in our family now. And I guess I can best describe it by giving you an illustration. It happened just a few weeks ago. We were at Lake Hartwell State Park. Our Airstream group was there. I'm the chaplain for that group. And beside us, there was this young couple. And they had just bought their Airstream about a year ago. And the first time they had been with us, they were so excited over it. Oh, they were. And they kept telling me, oh, we love it, we love it. And we've got a great deal. We've got a great deal. Well, they told me they had a great deal so many times that I did what I'm not supposed to do. And I waited for my wife not to be around to do it because I'd have gotten in trouble. But I said, how much did you give for that? And they told me. I said, you stole it. And then they started telling the story. Well, we found one that we liked. So we went to pick it up. And by all the people who went to pick it up, it had been sold out from under us. So we started another search. And we searched a long time for each time. We found another one. We went to pick it up. Sold out from under us. Found another one. Even told them we'd come down with the money, cash in hand. Got there and it wasn't there. What happened? Somebody came along with more money. That's three times we thought we had a trailer bought and it's gone. So we went back looking. And this time, it was halfway across the country. It was in West Texas. Long ways. Just drive it. And we called the man. We'd like to buy the trailer. All right. We'd like to send you some down payment, some earnest money. You don't need to do that. No, no, no, we want to do that. Because we've had three times where it's been sold out from under us. We want to send you money. No, no, no, you don't need to do that. It'll be here. I got your name on it. Well, we want to send you money. Don't send me any money. It'll be here. Well, we can't come to this weekend. That's all right, it'll be here. They drove halfway across the country. There it sat. One owner. Nothing wrong with it. Nothing had to be fixed. Great price. They brought it home. They were excited. Now, it's easy to look back and say, you know, God was in the details, wasn't he? Let me tell you what the spiritual leader does. You've done all this work. You get rid of that first trailer. And what happens? The deal falls through. They're not, it's not there when you get there. And you'd be unhappy, you'd be rejected, be disappointed, whatever you want to, but you still say as a spiritual leader, you know, if it's not here, that's not the one God wants us to have. Let's count this as a good day. God has something better. Second time it happens. I know it seems hard to say, but this deal is not the one. God has something better. Third time. I know this is a disappointing family, but I do not doubt my God. I believe God has something better for us. And the fourth time. There it is. I asked the couple one other question. I said, of the four deals, which was the best? This was the only trailer that we looked at that did not have to have work done. One owner, it was in perfect condition. And it was by far the best price. Family, God said no three times. Look what happens when He says yes. That's being the spiritual leader. Looking at what's going on today and seeing God at work in the details and communicating and translating that to those around you so they understand what God is doing right now. And you can do it when you're trying to buy a car, a house, a trailer, but you can do it with what God is doing in America today. Because I want to tell you, God is doing some things in America today. If we quit looking at the news and the circumstances and start looking at what He is doing, because He is God and He never quits working. The Israelites would have told you, for those 400 years we didn't hear from God. God showed up all the time and they didn't see Him at work. Let's not be blind to what God is doing today, gentlemen. Let's show it to our families. Father, thank You for these moments together for what You did then and what You are going to do today. Speak to our hearts. Show us what we need to do and what we need to be as men, first of all, and as families and as a church. Walk with us, Lord. If there be one here this morning that needs to make a decision for You, if they need to profess faith in You, if they need to unite with this church, You may be working with somebody in this church. Call them the full-time Christian ministry and they may be sitting there right now thinking, that's not even possible. Lord, show Your intentions to their heart. There are those here that may need to walk down and kneel at this altar. Say, Lord, I've been walking a walk that's not as close to You as it needs to be. I want to step up and be the spiritual leader of my family. I want to be the godly man You have called me to be. I want to look for You at work in everything I do. And I want to fearlessly and bravely tell everybody about it, not fear, but let my family know what You're doing. But Lord, first of all, before that happens, I ask You to take control of my heart this morning and just mold me into the man or the person You want me to be. We pray this in the powerful name of Jesus Christ. Amen.